Souche, Alban; Hartz, Ebbe H; Schmid, Daniel W (2026): A Global Dataset of Bathymetric Features Identified with Prominence and Isobaths Analysis [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.992546
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Published: 2026-02-25 • DOI registered: 2026-03-13
Abstract:
This dataset comprises 125,514 submarine bathymetric features derived from the GEBCO_2025 Grid at 15 arc-second resolution (GEBCO Compilation Group, 2025) through computational analysis. Features were identified globally (excluding land areas) using topographic prominence calculation based on the algorithm of Kirmse and de Ferranti (2017), and characterized via isobath analysis. Each feature with prominence ≥300 m is represented as a polygon geometry with five nested contour levels (100%, 90%, 75%, 50%, and 25% from base to peak prominence level) and morphometric attributes including area, circularity, orientation, bounding box dimensions, and slope statistics. A companion point dataset contains all 143,888 detected peaks, including those rejected during quality control. The dataset provides an objective, reproducible global inventory of submarine features for research in marine geology, biodiversity, oeanography, and resource assessment. The attribute-rich structure enables users to define sub-classifications using standard SQL queries (e.g., filtering for seamounts using prominence ≥1000 m and circularity criteria). Data are distributed as OGC-compliant GeoPackage files. Processing was performed in 2025.
Supplement to:
Souche, Alban; Hartz, Ebbe H; Schmid, Daniel W (in review): A Global Dataset of Bathymetric Features Identified with Prominence and Isobaths Analysis. Scientific Data
References:
The GEBCO_2025 Grid - a continuous terrain model for oceans and land at 15 arc-second intervals (2025). NERC EDS British Oceanographic Data Centre NOC, https://doi.org/10.5285/37C52E96-24EA-67CE-E063-7086ABC05F29
Kirmse, Andrew; de Ferranti, Jonathan (2017): Calculating the prominence and isolation of every mountain in the world. Progress in Physical Geography, 41(6), 788-802, https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133317738163
Coverage:
Median Latitude: 0.000000 * Median Longitude: 0.000000 * South-bound Latitude: -90.000000 * West-bound Longitude: -180.000000 * North-bound Latitude: 90.000000 * East-bound Longitude: 180.000000
Event(s):
Parameter(s):
| # | Name | Short Name | Unit | Principal Investigator | Method/Device | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Binary Object | Binary | Souche, Alban | |||
| 2 | Binary Object (Media Type) | Binary (Type) | Souche, Alban | |||
| 3 | Binary Object (File Size) | Binary (Size) | Bytes | Souche, Alban | ||
| 4 | File content | Content | Souche, Alban |
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0)
Status:
Curation Level: Enhanced curation (CurationLevelC)
Size:
4 data points
Data
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| 1 Binary | 2 Binary (Type) | 3 Binary (Size) [Bytes] | 4 Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| bathymetry_features_GEBCO2025_15s.gpkg | application/x-sqlite3 | 2.5 GBytes | Polygon geometries for 125,514 validated submarine features with five nested contour levels and morphometric attributes. |
| bathymetry_peaks_GEBCO2025_15s.gpkg | application/x-sqlite3 | 22.7 MBytes | Point geometries for all 143,888 detected peaks from the prominence algorithm. |